This Day in Mets History: Mets rally to beat Cubs

In 1969, Chicago Cubs center fielder Don Young misplayed two fly balls which the Mets parlayed into RBI hits from Cleon Jones and Ed Kranepool to rally in the ninth inning for a 4-3 victory. Cubs third baseman Ron Santo blasted Young after the game, and the next day called a press conference to apologize.

The victory was part of back-to-back series wins over the Cubs that jump started their drive to the playoffs. Jerry Koosman outpitched Ferguson Jenkins that day and the following game Tom Seaver pitched his near perfect game.

John Delcos enters his third season covering the Mets for The Journal News after eight seasons on the Yankees beat. Prior to coming to New York, John covered the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

4 Comments

Dan Gurney

There was a book written on these two series (sandwiching a series with the Expos) called “The Year the Mets lost First Place” by Dick Schaap and Jerry Zimmerman. Kind of a minute by minute diary on what Mets did during this series.